My friend Holly is in charge of The Siesta Fiesta Cookbook and has been doing a fantastic job. It’s a lot of work, but Holly is such a gracious and kind person, and she has been working very hard to make this cookbook something special.
Holly and I first established a relationship in the blogosphere ~ I don’t remember who first contacted whom, but we emailed back and forth and quickly became friends.
When we took a family trip to Colorado this past March, Holly and I were able to meet in person. Joanne and Meredith were there also, and we all had an absolutely wonderful time together.
This August, Ashley, Attison and I will be attending the Living Proof Live convention in San Antonio, as well as The Siesta Fiesta. Holly was instrumental in my decision to try to attend this event ~ she’s the one who told me about it, and she asked me to consider and pray about attending. After some prayer and discussions with Roger, I decided I would like to go. The only problem was the cost of the hotel ~ it was WAY more than we could afford. But, as is His way, God provided an alternative to the expense of staying in a hotel.
We have good friends who live just outside of San Antonio. Ed (Tex) and Stacey have been back in the San Antonio area for less than a year, but they’re all moved into their house (after living in their 5th wheel for 6 months!), and they’re ready for house guests. Plus, Stacey is a young grandma herself, and she just happens to absolutely L.O.V.E. babies ~ so Ashley, Atti and I are going to stay at their house while we’re in San Antonio for LPL and The Siesta Fiesta. Stacey will be attending the events with us, so we’re sure to have a good time. Stacey is an absolute kick ~ never a dull moment with her around!
I’m really looking forward to this trip in August. It’s the same weekend as Ashley’s 20th birthday, I’ll get to see my friends Holly and Joanne (Mer, I wish you were able to go too!), I’ll be able to catch up with my friend Stacey, attend a Beth Moore/LPL event (my 2nd), and hang with my “siestas” at the fiesta. It should be an amazing trip!
I just HAVE to get a little teaser in here: my friend Holly and I have been working on something very special for Christian homemakers. We’re hoping to “go live” with the debut in late July or early August. The goal is to be up and running before The Siesta Fiesta in August.
I can’t wait to tell you all about it! But for now, all I can say is that we’re working hard, and we’ll get things running smoothly (hopefully) as soon as possible. Watch for the upcoming announcement!
I have been all over the place lately!
Sawyer was a teen leader in our church’s Music & Drama Camp last week, so I was busy taking him to and from the church every morning. And since we live over 20 miles from the church, I just couldn’t justify making 2 round trips for a 4 hour camp, so I just stayed at the church and enjoyed watching the kids learn from and work with the adults (and teen leaders). This year the “drama” was Life School Musical. I haven’t seen High School Musical, but from the name I would guess it’s a Christian take-off of High School Musical. I was at camp every day, watching as the adults and teens gently but firmly guided and instructed the kids ~ ages kindergarten through 6th grade ~ and taught them the lines, choreography and music of Life School Musical. The performance Friday night was fantastic. Everyone involved in our church’s Music & Drama Camp do an amazing job. Pastor Eddie tells the kids that perfection is not the goal ~ excellence is. Both of my sons were involved in MaD when we lived here last time, and Patrick even had a major speaking role in one of them. It’s so cool to see the kids who were in kindergarten all those years ago now working as teen leaders.
I took pictures:
After MaD, Sawyer and I would rush home to make lunner (lunch + dinner = lunner), then head BACK to the church for choir practice. Every night ~ except Wednesday, when Sawyer had youth group AT THE CHURCH, and Friday night when the kids performed Life School Musical AT THE CHURCH. So, as you can see, I spent a lot of time AT THE CHURCH last week!
This week Sawyer has a couple of hours of choir practice tonight and tomorrow night (AT THE CHURCH, imagine that), then he will pack up and head to Colorado for 10 days with the youth choir. They’ll perform at a large cathedral in Kansas City and several churches all over Colorado. They’ll also perform at the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel on Sunday for the Protestant service. I can’t even begin to express how HUGE of a deal performing at the Cadet Chapel is. NO ONE gets to perform there. I’m not sure how Pastor Eddie managed to pull that booking off, but I have a strong suspicion it has something to do with a friend of ours, a retired AF colonel, who lives in the area. (By the way, we miss you, Brian and Sherri!) I seriously considered volunteering as one of the adult chaperons for this choir trip ~ I miss the mountains, and I would love to be somewhere that has lower humidity. But, having my daughter move in and being present for Attison’s birth took precedence over a trip to Colorado this year. Maybe next time…..
I haven’t taken any pictures of Attison this week, but here’s one from last week:
Other than being a little fussy now and then, she’s really an angel baby. She’s working hard on holding up her head, and she is beginning to show some personality with occasional smiles. Of course I will be taking pictures this week ~ and you know I’ll post them! 
Yesterday was Roger’s 41st birthday! We celebrated with a yummy lasagna made by Jacob’s mom, and a heavenly peanut butter chocolate ganache cake made by my friend Kathryn. Everything was wonderful, and we had a lovely time!
Happy birthday, Rog!
My friend Tamara @ Training Hearts is giving away 5 chances to win a ticket for the Heart of the Matter online’s virtual conference:
Shhhh! Do you hear that? It is the comfort of your home calling you. PJs, coffee, or tea (your flavor), and five fun filled days just for you!
In Heart of the Matter Online’s
(http://heartofthematteronline.com/) quest to bring you the absolute best home school resource online, they have listened to your requests and are providing you with a fun filled online adventure! On July 30th through August 3rd, they will be hosting Heart of the Matter Online’s first annual Virtual Homeschool Conference! They will be providing the attendees with motivational speakers, video tutorials, free products, question and answer sessions, and a vendor hall – all ONLINE! Just log on and listen live during that time or log in at your convenience and download the audios.
This conference will be less like a “seminar” and more like a bunch of close friends in a chat room. Just wait till you see what some of your favorite home school personalities (http://www.hotmconference.com/2008/03/2008-speakers.html) have done to educate and entertain you! At the end you will join in to chat with them, ask questions, and they will answer.
{Click on graphic above to get the Early Bird Special!}
To ensure your spot in the conference room and to take advantage of the early bird special. Simply, visit the Heart of the Matter Online Conference (http://www.hotmconference.com) site and click the “pay now” button. At $19.95 these prices won’t last long! This $19.95 includes a fabulous $30 package from Currclick: curriculum in a click! Currclick (formerly HomeschoolEstore) is the largest one-stop shop for electronic lapbooks, affordable curriculum, and homeschooling resources.
If you would like to be entered in Tamara’s drawing, click here.
Ashley and I spent some time today out taking pictures. We wanted to get some good ones before Attison is born. Take a look……
From A Distance by Tamera Alexander
This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducing
From A Distance(Bethany House June 1, 2008)byTamera Alexander
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Tamera Alexander is a bestselling novelist whose deeply drawn characters, thought-provoking plots and poignant prose resonate with readers. Tamera is a finalist for the 2008 Christy Award Remembered, and has been awarded the coveted RITA® from Romance Writers of America Revealed, along with Library Journal’s Top Christian Fiction of 2006 Rekindled. Having lived in Colorado for seventeen years, she and her husband now make their home in the quaint town of historic Franklin, Tennessee, where they enjoy life with their two college-age children and a precious—and precocious—silky terrier named Jack.
A Note from Tamera:
Stories are journeys, and each story I write is a journey for me.
Rekindled began with a dream—the image of a man returning home on horseback. He came upon a freshly dug grave and when he knelt to read the name carved into the roughhewn wooden cross, he discovered the name was…his own. The inspiration for Revealed grew from two characters in Rekindled whose stories needed to be told. But even more, whose stories I needed to tell. Writing Revealed was a very personal journey for me, and a healing one. For Remembered, I met that story’s heroine (figuratively, of course) while strolling the ancient cobblestoned pathways of a three hundred-year-old cemetery in northern Paris, France. And From A Distance came from a question I was struggling with in my own life at the time, “What happens when the dream you asked God for isn’t what you thought it would be?”
For me, the greatest thrill of these writing journeys is when Christ reveals Himself in some new way, and I take a step closer to Him. And my deepest desire is that readers of my books will do that as well—take steps closer to Him as they read. After all, it’s all about Him.
In the Potter’s Hand,
Tamera
ABOUT THE BOOK
What happens when dreams aren’t what you imagined,
And secrets you’ve spent a lifetime guarding are finally laid bare?
Determined to become one of the country’s premier newspaper photographers, Elizabeth Westbrook travels to the Colorado Territory to capture the grandeur of the mountains surrounding the remote town of Timber Ridge. She hopes, too, that the cool, dry air of Colorado, and its renowned hot springs, will cure the mysterious illness that threatens her career, and her life.
Daniel Ranslett, a former Confederate sharpshooter, is a man shackled by his past, and he’ll do anything to protect his land and his solitude. When an outspoken Yankee photographer captures an image that appears key to solving a murder, putting herself in danger, Daniel is called upon to repay a debt. He’s a man of his word, but repaying that debt will bring secrets from his past to light.
Forced on a perilous journey together, Daniel and Elizabeth’s lives intertwine in ways neither could have imagined when first they met . . . from a distance.
If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE
“…a rich historical romance by possibly the best new writer in this subgenre.”
–Library Journal
“…a most amazing story. The characters are more than words on the page; they become real people.”
–Romantic Times
My couch monkeys and their favorite sidekick….
Yesterday was a very long day. Ashley started having contractions Sunday evening around 8:30. They were a little uncomfortable, and anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes apart, so we didn’t think too much about it. I just kept giving her water (after all it IS my Windex) and told her to try to get some sleep. surprisingly enough, she was actually able to sleep, even though the contractions continued through the night.
I called the doctor’s office yesterday morning, after the contractions had been going on for over 12 hours. The nurse told me to bring Ashley in so they could hook her up to the monitors to see what was going on. Once we got there and they did their little test, they determined she was dilated to 2, and sent her over to the Labor & Delivery floor of the hospital for further observation.
The contractions were pretty good ones ~ spiking off the chart about every 2 minutes. After 4 hours, though, there was no change in dilation, so the doctor decoded that since Ashley has just reached the 36 weeks point, it was time to stop the contractions and not let her go into what is still considered “early labor” at 36 weeks. So, they pumped her full of drugs (that none of us were happy about, but the benefits of waiting at least another week before delivery far outweigh any short-term side effects Ashley was made to suffer through because of the drugs) and eventually the contractions stopped. We were at the hospital for about 12 hours before we were finally able to go home.
Ashley got up this morning and said she was having contractions again, but she didn’t know how regular they were because she had been sleeping. She went back to bed, so they must not be too intense right now. The doc said the contractions are fine, but unless she dilates to at least a 4 he’s not going tolet her deliver before 37 weeks. She has a regular doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning, so we’ll see if she has dilated any more by then.
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Tamera Alexander is a bestselling novelist whose deeply drawn characters, thought-provoking plots and poignant prose resonate with readers. Tamera is a finalist for the 2008 Christy Award Remembered, and has been awarded the coveted RITA® from Romance Writers of America Revealed, along with Library Journal’s Top Christian Fiction of 2006 Rekindled. Having lived in Colorado for seventeen years, she and her husband now make their home in the quaint town of historic Franklin, Tennessee, where they enjoy life with their two college-age children and a precious—and precocious—silky terrier named Jack.
What happens when dreams aren’t what you imagined,
